Twilight: I... I don't want to be right about this, Pinkie Pie, but it seems like the only solution that fits, which is why I’m hoping you can give me that one piece of evidence that I’m missing—something that wraps everything up in a neat, logical package.Pinkie: I’m sorry, Twilight, but I can't.Twilight: You don’t want to talk about it?Pinkie: No, I mean that I can’t give you the missing information you want... because there isn’t any.

Ass Pull: In-Universe, Pinkie admits she made up the rock farming story on the spot to avoid telling the Cutie Mark Crusaders the truth about her origins.

Pinkie: (to Twilight) Do you really think the Nightmare would risk the chance of Celestia getting you to change your mind the same way she got you to change it?Twilight: (to the Nightmare; stone-faced) Would you let her live?

The Coup: Subverted. Due to the Nightmare's corruption, Twilight wants Celestia's and Luna's thrones for herself. Due to her own bookishness and sense of order, Twilight doesn't try to take the throne by violence—instead she presents logical arguments for why the princesses should cede the throne. This is then double-subverted, when Pinkie uncovers that the Nightmare wants a violent coup—her real goal isn't power, but killing Celestia—and is manipulating Twilight to that end. Nothing comes of this manipulation, however, because Twi learns about it and immediately turns on the Nightmare. In the aftermath, Twilight is mortified at her actions and asks for forgiveness. Luna points out that she doesn't need to be forgiven, because she never broke any laws during her attempted power grab.

Group Hug: Pinkie Pie manages to weaponize one when she loudly announces that it's the Nightmare's birthday. All of Twilight's memories of Pinkie come out from hiding to tackle her before hauling her off to a party.

He Who Fights Monsters: Twilight comes dangerously close to killing the Nightmare in her rage. It takes a combination of seeing her reflection in a (dream) fountain and realizing the conclusion to a certain train of thought to get her to stop.

Twilight sighed and returned her focus to her target. "Nightmare, you’re going to... to..." Why am I stalling? Like I said, it needs to be done! In fact, it would have been done already, if only Pinkie hadn’t butted in. Why can’t that stupid earth pony just—

Journey to the Center of the Mind: Pinkie enters Twilight's mind to formulate a battle plan against the Nightmare. It's laid out very similar to Canterlot, with various parts of the castle and city dedicated to imagination, dreams, memories, knowledge, etc.

Power Limiter: Pinkie Pie is voluntarily keeping most of her Imaginary Friend power sealed off to avoid hurting others by accident. Unless a Pinkie Promise is involved - in that case, the entire arsenal is at her disposal for the purpose of Keeping the Promise.

Punctuated Pounding: Twilight is not happy once she finds out Nightmare's plans. She mentions each of her friends; then, "As she rattled off each name, Twilight repeatedly slammed the Nightmare into the ground, a wall, or any other surface that looked solid enough to cause significant trauma. It was far more satisfying than making a checkmark on a scroll with a quill."

Puppet Princesses: Twilight offers to let Celestia and Luna remain on their thrones as figureheads while she pulls the strings.

The Extremist Was Right: By the end of Twilight's presentation, even Celestia and Luna agree with her points regarding the research itself and give Twilight the go-ahead to access them. The main issue is handing actual rule of Equestria to Twilight, to which Celestia notes Twilight would be ill-suited for because of all the politics involved.

What the Hell, Hero?: The first half of Twilight's proposal basically amounts to a meticulously-researched one of these directed at the Princesses.

Princess Luna: You needn't draw this out with an extended interrogation; I can see where this train of thought leads. You are about to inform me that the Nightmare was my imaginary friend, likely forgotten for the same reason that Twilight Sparkle forgot about you when you manifested, are you not?

Job Title: The titles that are named after Penumbra's jobs, such as Assistant Pastry Chef, and Barrister.

Morton's Fork: Penumbra being a thousand years old, she has no idea how modern workplace relations work. In the various jobs she tries, she is sent mixed signals of the highest degree, in one instance being fired for being too cold and "only doing her job" while in another quitting over sexual harassment.

Mundane Utility: Penumbra is a pseudo-alicorn super-pegasus with enhanced everything. What does she consider most useful? Her super preening oil! That she is actually a thousand years old just means she has plenty of experience with preening feathers!

True Art: An In-Universe example, and Penumbra's reasons for selecting cloud sculpting and construction as her final job. She just got fed up with the mass-produced versions floating around everywhere.

π

Alternate Universe: While previous stories in the Cycle only explore the aspects and characters that the author introduces, π sets the series firmly in this category by introducing these aspects and characters into the canonical premise of Magic Duel.

Hoist by His Own Petard: Hoist By Her Own Petard: Subverted when Trixie finds out Twilight's attempt to beat her with smoke and mirrors. YMMV as to whether it makes more sense for Trixie's familiarity with her own trade or her megalomania to win as in the original episode.

Karma Houdini: In the end Trixie escapes Ponyville without learning her lesson or being punished for her actions. Nevermind that her actions are perfectly defendable in court...

Least Rhymable Word: When asked about the difficulty of always speaking in rhyme, Zecora admits:

It's somewhat difficult to talk about oranges When I can not work in a reference to door hinges.

Who Wants to Live Forever?: Discussed and averted. Not only does Penumbra not put any stock in this trope, it turns out that it isn't even applicable. Alicorns aren't actually immortal; they just "don't leave until they're ready to go."

He then tickles her to get her to laugh, which is declared by Applejack (who Penumbra made "the final judge and arbiter of whether or not Discord has actually fulfilled the terms of the contest") to not have counted.

Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Discord, of course. Early on most of his jokes just consist of transforming somepony or something and then making a pun about it, and he gets confused when nopony else laughs.

"Shaggy Dog" Story: A retroactive case for "Petriculture": Pinkie Pie casually mentions in chapter 7 that she got gemstones for Spike by growing them, using pebbles as seeds. In other words, petriculture is a thing.

Unusual Chapter Numbers / Back to Front: There are two storylines, one set at the present time (told in normal sequence) and a series of flashbacks to Discord's first reign of chaos (in reverse chronological order). The chapters are numbered in reverse as well, and the story ends with a prologue.

Unwinnable by Design: The bet. Penumbra has the ability to not laugh if she doesn't want to. The idea was to force Discord to put himself in Penumbra's shoes, and hopefully this empathy would lead him to friendship. But then Scootaloo unwittingly spills the beans...

Void Between the Worlds: Where Discord and Sombra end up after the climax. Oddly enough, Discord enjoys the experience, or at least he would if Sombra's desperate attempts to cling to what remains of his sanity weren't so irritating.

Wimp Fight: When Discord and Pinkie finally face off, the first thing they do is engage in a comically ineffective slap-fight while calling each other names. Only after several minutes of that do they start the proper magic duel. Of course, both of them only did it because they thought it would be funny.

Your Worst Nightmare: Trixie, with Sombra's power, can do this. The repeated illusions have a draining effect on the Mane Six, but it only takes one to give Celestia a full, sobbing breakdown.

X-Ray Sparks: Discord, during his first defeat, when Celestia bucks a cloud at him.

Transdementia

Acid-Trip Dimension: One of these exists between the two sides of the mirror, though it's a relatively subdued one.

Alternate Universe: To Equestria Girls. Sunset Shimmer sneaks into Equestria to steal the Element of Magic and escapes through the magic mirror, but Princess Celestia sends Pinkie Pie rather than Twilight to bring it back. Penumbra has to go along for the ride, since she lives in Pinkie's mind - and so does Discord, since he's hiding out at Penumbra's place after faking his death at the end of Pandelirium.

Alternate Self: This fic establishes that Human Twilight created her own imaginary friend named Surprise. She only takes physical form in Chapter 15, when Twilight calls on her to help defeat Sunset.

Insistent Terminology: Penumbra's "Don't call me Penny" line gets used in various ways, by both her and others. Pinkie borrows it when Discord addresses her by her full name ("Don't call me Pinkamena"), and both girls start it together when he introduces them to Principal Celestia as Pinkamena and Penny.

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